THE VALUE OF ATTENUATION CORRECTION ON SPECT MYOCARDIAL PREFUSION IMAGING

Abstract

The relatively low specificity of myocardial perfusion SPCT can be attributed to the artifacts resulting from non uniform photon attenuation which can be compensated using attenuation correction maps. This prospective study is formed of 49 patients with suspicious CAD. All patients have been subjected to clinical examination, Echo, angiography and 99mTc tetrofosmin myocardial perfusion SPECT imaging before and after attenuation correction. This study showed improvement in myocardial hypoperfusion detection as a result of applying attenuation correction in 17 patients, however over correction with negative results was seen in 3 patients. The other 29 patients showed equal results with and without attenuation correction.